Are we too nice?

John Pohoretz asks the questions that I have been asking for a long time. The West has the military might to beat the Islamic terrorists, but does it have the philosophical makeup to decide to do just that? And pay whatever cost is necessary?

Could Israel - even hardy, strong, universally conscripted Israel - possibly stomach the bloodshed that would accompany the total destruction of Hezbollah?

If Lebanon's 300-plus civilian casualties are already rocking the world, what if it would take 10,000 civilian casualties to finish off Hezbollah? Could Israel inflict that kind of damage on Lebanon - not because of world opinion, but because of its own modern sensibilities and its understanding of the value of every human life?